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Paying for Online News

The decline in print sales and print advertising has put renewed pressure on newspaper groups to find new sources of digital revenue. But the transition remains anything but straightforward. Returns from digital advertising have been falling for years, made worse by lower rates on mobile. But in general, only a few specialist publishers or heritage brands have been able to charge significant amounts for content in a world when there is so much free news available.

After a sharp upturn in 2012–13 – when a large number of paywalls were introduced – our data show very little change in the absolute number of people paying for digital news over the past year. In most countries the number paying for any news is hovering around 10% of online users and in some cases less than that.

Percentage paying for online news by country

UK

Ireland

Germany

Japan

France

US

Spain

Australia

Italy

Denmark

Finland

Ongoing

71%

31%

60%

76%

51%

67%

49%

70%

45%

71%

69%

One-off

27%

63%

47%

39%

50%

30%

53%

27%

63%

17%

23%

Q7. Have you paid for ONLINE news content, or accessed a paid for ONLINE news service in the last year? (This could be digital subscription, combined digital/print subscription, or one-off payment for an article or app.)

Base: Total sample in each country.

Q7ai. Which, if any, of the following ways have you used to pay for ONLINE news content in the last year?

These headline figures, however, mask very different yields from paid content online. The US, Australia, and the UK are three countries where news companies have been pushing hard to sign users up to digital or combined subscription packages. In all three countries these ongoing payments now stand at around 70% of all receipts for paid content. By contrast, in Spain smaller one-off payments are the norm.

Breakdown in monthly payments for online news – UK

OPTQ7ciii. How much have you paid for online news content, or for access to a paid for online news service in the last year? Choose the option that comes closest to the amount you have paid. If you have paid to different providers for online news, think only of the single provider you have paid the most to.

Breakdown in monthly payments for online news – US

OPTQ7ciii. How much have you paid for online news content, or for access to a paid for online news service in the last year? Choose the option that comes closest to the amount you have paid. If you have paid to different providers for online news, think only of the single provider you have paid the most to.

Breakdown in monthly payments for online news – Australia

OPTQ7ciii. How much have you paid for online news content, or for access to a paid for online news service in the last year? Choose the option that comes closest to the amount you have paid. If you have paid to different providers for online news, think only of the single provider you have paid the most to.

Breakdown in monthly payments for online news – Spain

OPTQ7ciii. How much have you paid for online news content, or for access to a paid for online news service in the last year? Choose the option that comes closest to the amount you have paid. If you have paid to different providers for online news, think only of the single provider you have paid the most to.

We can use this data, combined with data about the size of the adult population, to make a rough estimate of the total online news revenue in each country. Despite a smaller overall percentage paying for news, the total revenue in the UK is roughly double that of Spain due to the higher average payment and larger population.

The picture does not get much better when we ask whether – and how much – people would be prepared to pay online in the future – for brands that they like.